Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like you to close your eyes and let your mind take a journey back in time to 100 years ago. Life was much less frenetic yet in so many ways far tougher, especially in country areas. As much as 42 per cent of the Australian population lived in the regions then, compared with only one-tenth today. Labor's Andrew Fisher was in the second of his three stints as Prime Minister, and James McGowen was serving as the very first Labor Premier of New South Wales. McGowen had a bit of ticker. His government carried out an active policy of subsidising hospitals and dispensaries in order to bring about the realisation of universal health care, and he took it upon himself to settle a gas workers strike by threatening to replace them with non-union labour. His public works minister, Arthur Griffith, conducted the celebrated turning on of the water at the Yanco regulator on 13 July 1912.

This was obviously a government with a plan for the future—a far cry from now—because the Murrumbidgee irrigation scheme cost 25,374,000 pounds, which was quite an investment. Mr Griffith and two men who worked on the construction of the irrigation network, one of whom was Christopher Younger, winched open a sluicegate on the regulator to allow water to flow into the channels of the irrigation system for the first time. A contemporary report described the event thus:

Mr. Griffith said the irrigation land they hoped to open up was the best in the world, and this settlement should be as successful as any in America. It would be also an insurance to the Riverina pastoralists.

Then he set to work at the winch and in a few moments, with a noise of cheers, a wave of muddy red water broke out and along the surface of the southern channel.

It was a day of great joy for the district. It was the realisation of the vision of the pioneer dubbed 'the Father of the Murrumbidgee irrigation scheme', Samuel McCaughey. He was the first pastoralist to introduce large-scale irrigation to Australia. This Irish-born farmer's son landed in Melbourne in 1856 and headed bush immediately. In 1889 McCaughey purchased Yarrabee Station on Yanco Creek near Narrandera, in conjunction with his brother, John. In 1900 McCaughey bought North Yanco and at considerable cost built about 200 miles of channels and irrigated 40,000 acres. The success of this scheme prompted the New South Wales government to proceed with the dam at Burrinjuck, construction of which began in 1907. North Yanco, including the land on which the town of Leeton now stands, was later sold to the state for close to settlement.

Early European visitors had not held out much hope for the district now known as the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. The Surveyor General of New South Wales, John Oxley, looking out from Mount Brogden in 1817 saw what he described as:

… a country which, for barrenness and desolation, can I think have no equal. I believe I am the first white man to ever view this desolate landscape and believe I will likely be the last, there is little probability that these desolate plains will ever again be visited by civilised man.

Charles Sturt was just as scathing in his 1829 assessment, yet within a century of these explorations life-giving water transformed once arid stretches into a fertile, bountiful region. Sir Samuel McCaughey, who was knighted in 1905, was right when he declared in 1909 that water was more precious than gold It is fitting that a statue of this remarkable man will be unveiled on 6 April in the Yanco park named in his memory.

The centenary of the turning on of the water was celebrated in style with a re-enactment of the historical events. The weather for last year's commemoration was just the same as it was 100 years ago to the day: sunny but cold with a who's who of politics and the local community turning out en masse for the occasion. The band played, speeches were given and the water which gave this once-bleak landscape life to produce food and underpin not just the area's economy but, indeed, Australia's, was let flow. 'This is a ceremony of gratitude,' said Governor of New South Wales and Narrandera girl Marie Bashir in a marvellous and captivating address. Professor Bashir talked about how optimistic, energetic and committed the pioneers were and said that the 2012 event would be something everyone should be sure to tell their children about. She said:

It's an emotional homecoming for me because I had the happiest of childhoods in this region.

Here we are participating in a ceremony of gratitude for the vision, the sheer hard work and the determination to turn this region into a veritable Garden of Eden.

This is a great Australian story – I can remember as a child coming to the farms at Leeton to get the fresh oranges and the wonderful apricots.

The need for sensible water policy and to strengthen irrigation was also mentioned often and loudly at last year's memorable ceremony. The motion before the House acknowledges that the MIA was created to control and divert the flow of local river and creek systems for the purpose of food production and is today one of the most diverse and production regions in Australia, contributing more than $5 billion annually to the Australian economy. The Riverina towns of Coleambally, Leeton and Yanco and the city of Griffith, proud communities all, were purpose built and designed as part of the project and are now some of the most thriving and multicultural regional communities in Australia.

Leeton takes its name from Charles Lee, who was Secretary for Public Works from 1904 to 1910, presiding over an extensive public works program including the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, Cataract Dam for Sydney's water supply, construction of Burrinjuck Dam and the creation of the purpose built, Walter Burley Griffin designed town named in Lee's honour.

Griffith was named after the man who opened the gates on that great day in 1912. The Coleambally Irrigation Area scheme began in the 1950s with potential farmland made available through a ballot system. Those who entered the ballot had to establish that they were financially secure enough to set up a farm as none of the land had fencing or infrastructure. The successful ballot winners were also required to relinquish any other primary interests they had. For these hardy souls it would be all or nothing for Coleambally.

In essence, that is the way it has been for this entire region. Riverina irrigators have always given their all, yet in recent years these marvellous family farmers have not been shown the same faith by the federal government. Members of this place should appreciate that irrigation underpins national and international food security. Further, they ought to know that our irrigation industry in Australia fulfils its role as the food bowl of Asia. It is important to build our food processing industry so it can supply Asia's growing consumer markets and develop the research, technologies and logistics which strengthen irrigation, grow high-yield crops and improve safety.

Irrigation communities such as those in the Murrumbidgee and Coleambally areas as well as those in the southern Riverina around Deniliquin, of my colleague the member for Farrer, and the Goulburn-Murray of the member for Murray, need the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be implemented in such a way that it does not destroy hard-won rights fought for and utilised to the betterment of this nation for more than a hundred years. The members for Farrer and Murray and I have argued passionately for a triple bottom line of social, economic and environmental outcomes during this 43rd Parliament as the basin plan neared its legislation. I moved to disallow the Basin Plan and had the motion seconded by the member for Murray. It was debated late afternoon on 29 November 2012, the last sitting day. The motion was lost, but it is better to have tried and failed than failed to have tried.

Ten days earlier I had written to the Prime Minister, inviting her to visit the Riverina to address a public meeting to assure the good people there that the hard work they do to help feed our nation and others is valued and that there is a strong future for them after the plan is legislated. I am still waiting to hear back from her office. In her 3 May 2012 speech to the Global Foundation summit in Melbourne the Prime Minister spoke of strengthening irrigation. Her 28 October Asian century white paper acknowledges the huge role Australia has meeting the global food task in the years ahead. Australia is best placed geographically and economically and with our agriculture industry already well established to more than meet the growing demand for food in Asia.

Happily, the Leader of the Opposition on 27 November 2012 made his strongest statement to date on water, saying a future coalition government would cap buyback at 1,500 gigalitres, meaning that with water already recovered there would be only 249 gigalitres to purchase basin-wide. Previously, the New South Wales Minister for Primary Industries had announced a limit on buybacks of three per cent per valley per decade from 15 January 2013. These assurances were welcomed by Riverina irrigators and certainly every Griffith farmer, whom the Australian Farm Institute says feeds 150 Australians and 450 farmers each and every year.

Just last Friday the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, in rejecting a bid by conservationists to lock out mining from Tasmania's Tarkine region, said:

From purely environmental terms, it would have been something that would have been a wonderful thing to be able to do but you have to take into account the impact on people and taking that impact into account meant that I simply couldn't go with the Heritage Council's recommendations.

As Elizabeth Stott, the wife of a Gogeldrie cotton farmer and a strident campaigner for fair water rights, said: 'I couldn't believe it when I heard those words come out of Minister Burke's mouth.' Unions strongly campaigned to allow mining. Australian Workers Union head, Paul Howes, said that the campaign to put the Tarkine region on the heritage register was run by mainland activists and would have been a disaster for Tasmania. Mr Howes further said:

What the Federal Government has done today is a huge win for the people of Tasmania and also for the future of the economic development of north-west Tasmania which sorely needs more jobs …

Given Tony Burke's alienation of irrigation communities during the Basin Plan process, an attitude many of my people saw as unfathomable and unconscionable, perhaps what was needed for their cause was to have the support of a trade union! Sadly, that seems to be the only thing which gets those on the other side moving. So I call on the parliament to support this motion celebrating the centenary of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, I call on members to show their support for the people who put food on their table and I call on the Prime Minister to implement the commitment to strengthen irrigation, as promised nine months ago.

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